“Iceberg right ahead”
If the movie studios are the iceberg, then the Terminator franchise is surely the Titanic, sailing full steam ahead into inevitable disaster. Even though the studios try to avoid it and work hard in doing so, history tells us that a franchise taking on water will eventually sink.
2019 can’t come quick enough, why?, because that’s when the film rights for Terminator revert back to James Cameron. Cameron will lead an expedition to the deep, dark depths of the franchise to visit an old friend that sank and disappeared back in 1991.
The Terminator franchise has had a very tumultuous run, 1991’s Terminator 2: Judgement Day was the last time that a movie in the franchise was highly successful. It is highly regarded as the best sequel and set the bar for films to follow.
Unfortunately, the Terminator movies that followed were very nonsensical and full of convoluted plots and storylines that I’m still having trouble wrapping my head around. Terminator 3: Rise Of The Machines had good intentions, it was just executed poorly. Nick Stahl took over the role of John Connor, having previously been played by the mayor of junkie town USA Edward Furlong.
Recasting is just one of the many major problems to plague the Terminator franchise. So far we have seen five different actors cast as John Connor, Michael Edwards, Edward Furlong, Nick Stahl, Christian Bale and Jason Clarke. With the exception to Michael Edwards, as he was only used briefly in Terminator 2, each new film created all new problems for a franchise desperately trying to hold on and recreate the success of James Cameron’s Terminator 2.
It’s very hard to go into a Terminator movie and see a new John Connor every time, it just adds more confusion to an already confusing franchise. Every actor that takes on the role has their own take on the character. It’s almost like watching someone with split personalities who are one person one minute, then completely different the next. The franchise doesn’t need flavour of the month A-list actors, it needs some damn continuity.
Terminator: Salvation should have been a launching pad for the franchise yet again. McG’s film had no time travel ( thank god ) and should have been a very straight up action film set in a Post-Apocalyptic California. This film was let down by it’s 20ft Transformer-esque robots, cyborg motorcycles and a very unappealing CGI Arnold Schwarzenegger. They also ditched the Skynet chrome for it’s cyborgs with a dirtier grittier look. For all its faults, This film has the best cast to date, but unfortunately Christian Bale, Sam Worthington, Bryce Dallas Howard, Anton Yelchin and Helena Bonham Carter weren’t able to be the Terminators salvation.
I’m not going into Terminator: Genisys because that movie is just a confusing mess and suffers from extreme X-Men syndrome. It’s like someone at the studio unravelled a ball of wool and tried to roll it back into it’s original shape. I don’t want to write it and you don’t want to read it, click the play button at the top of the page for the Honest Trailers version of Terminator: Genisys.
Now with all that being said, where does the future take us with the franchise, enter James Cameron. Early in 2017 Paramount dropped the planned Terminator 6 from it’s release schedule which allowed Cameron to step in and resurrect The Terminator once again. Not only is James Cameron set to produce the film, he is also courting Deadpool director Tim Miller to guide the franchise into a future that has not been set.
Let us know your thoughts and comments on the Terminator franchise.
